Risk market inflows rise to $17.6bn

Statistics from Plan for Life released this week revealed an increase in life insurance risk inflows from $16.7 billion to $17.6 billion during 2021.

Risk inflows gained 5.5 per cent in 2021, with mid-sized insurers MetLife and QInsure reporting double digit inflow growth rates of 11.9 per cent and 10.1 per cent, respectively.

Much smaller player NobleOak recorded gains of 60.4 per cent to $223.7 million.

While their growth was single digit, market leaders TAL and AIA both saw above average inflow increases of 7.5 per cent and 7.3 per cent, respectively.

The remaining funds finished either modestly higher or with little change. Among them, BT/Westpac edged up 0.7 per cent, while Resolution contracted 0.6 per cent.  

Total new premium sales rose just 2.2 per cent year on year, with BT/Westpac (24.9 per cent), TAL (24.3 per cent) and Zurich (12.6 per cent) reporting double digit percentage increases in their risk sales. These, however, were offset by falls recorded by AIA (-7.5 per cent), Resolution (-7.9 per cent) and ClearView (-8.7 per cent).

Once again, NobleOak outperformed reporting a six-fold jump in its annual risk sales, but off a very low base, according to Plan for Life. As a result, NobleOak's market share grew to 1.3 per cent, from 0.8 per cent in December 2020 and just 0.5 per cent in 2019.